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Chaos in Mali puts millions of West Africans at risk of starvation, aid groups say

Aid agencies have sounded the alarm on the plight of at least 10 million malnourished people across West Africa's Sahel region.

Two-year-old Ouobra Kompalemba, who suffers from severe malnutrition and bronchitis, receives milk through a catheter at a hospital in Diapaga, Burkina Faso. A food crisis in the region is threatening more than 10 million people, UNICEF says. (RAPHAEL DE BENGY / AFP)

Mariama spends her days in a desperate hunt for water to keep her four children alive. Already a refugee from drought-stricken Mali, she now lives in dusty Niger, a hardscrabble country to the east.

But her children still get sick from life-threatening diarrhea because the wells, kilometres away, are contaminated.

For her family back in Mali, life is about to get much worse. The country of 15 million is in meltdown from a chaotic coup by a group of young soldiers, and the steady incursion of rebel Tuaregs who have taken over much of the north.

On Tuesday — as neighbouring countries sealed off the borders to force the coup leaders to return to civilian rule — aid agencies sounded the alarm on the plight of at least 10 million malnourished people across West Africa’s Sahel region.

“People were in a nutrition crisis two years ago in the Sahel,” says David Morley, president of the UN children’s agency UNICEF Canada. “Now they are much weaker, and their ability to cope is less. It’s such a poor region they just can’t recover, and this unrest makes it even worse.”

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In the eight Sahel countries — Mali, Niger, Chad, Mauritania, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Cameroon — some 10 million people are affected by ongoing drought, the agency says, and more than 1 million are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year.

As the coup undermines Mali’s political system, and rebels rampage across the north, seizing the ancient city of Timbuktu, the landlocked country is the main focus of anxiety. On Tuesday, Nigeria and other regional countries proposed a deal for Mali’s military junta to leave power and an interim leader to take over until elections are held. Meanwhile, Malians began stocking up on gasoline and cash before the full effects of the sanctions are felt.

But the UN refugee agency has voiced deep concern over the fate of refugees from Mali who are draining the meagre resources of neighbouring countries, as well as those displaced by the insurgency.

“Mali has been a darling of democracy for 20 years,” says Joshua Ramisch of University of Ottawa, an expert in the region. “Now it’s a nightmare scenario.”

At this time of year, he points out, young men leave for other parts of Africa to find work and send money home to sustain their families through months of bad weather before the year’s food crops appear.

“Mali had better prospects because so many people were sending money back. It keeps the country going. Even road construction is financed by remittances. But if everything is sealed off under sanctions, there won’t be any way to transfer money into the country from people who have already left.”

On Monday, an ultimatum to the coup leaders from a regional body of 15 West African nations expired and they ordered all land borders closed “until constitutional order is restored.” Mali’s account at the regional central bank would be frozen, and vital fuel supplies blocked.

If the chaos continues, aid agencies worry, Mali could become another failed state like Somalia, exporting violence and refugees to its poor neighbours.

“The instability makes it harder to get help to people who need it,” said Morley. “We don’t yet know what that will mean.”

Oxfam’s country director for Mali, Eric Mamboue, said in an email that the insecurity “must not prevent urgent efforts needed to deal with the other crises: the lack of affordable food that threatens the lives and livelihoods of 3.5 million Malians.”

Other countries in the region are also suffering as a result of the displacement of more than 200,000 people, Oxfam said in a statement.

“There are signs that the escalation in (Mali’s) instability is further affecting the already serious food insecurity across West Africa, meaning a rapid increase in humanitarian assistance to the region is urgently needed,” the group said.

The routes of nomadic herders have been disrupted, and they are moving their livestock to land that is already overtaxed, Oxfam said.

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